Process of making battery-zincs



UNITED STATES ATENT lllRAM G. FARR, OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS.

PROCESS OF MAKING BATTERY-ZINCS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 401,338, dated April 16, 1889. Application filed April 27, 1888- Serial No. 272,053. (No specimens.)

To (bZZ whom, it E'I'I/(LZ/ concern.-

Be it known that I, HIRAM G. FARR-,of Boston, in the county of Suffolk, State of Massachusett-s, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in the Process of Making Battery-Zines, of which the following is a description suffi cientlyfull, clear, and exact to enable any person skilled in the art or science to which said invention appertains to make and use the same.

My invention is designed to produce a compound of zinc which thoroughly annlgamated throughout without crystallization, and which will resist the action of the chemicals in a battery much longer, while producing the same electric force, than zinc-s as ordinarily constructed or which are subject to continuous an'lalgamation in the battery; and to that end I submit the zinc to a process which will be readily understood by all conversant with such matters from the following explanation:

In carrying out my invention I first melt one hundred parts of commercial zinc in any suitable vessel and add to it ten parts of tin, stirring the mass thoroughly until the tin is melted. To this I add ten parts of mercury and pour the liquid mass into molds of the form and size desired. The blanks are then taken from the molds and submitted to heat sutlicient to cause the mercury to appear on their surfaces in small globules, after which they are plunged at once into a bath consist ing of a Weak acid solution, preferably composed'of one part sulphuric acid to twenty parts water. The action of the bath upon the composition I am unable to explaiinbeing to a certain extent phenomenal; but I, find that the zinc blanks thus constructed require great force to break them and when broken show no signs of crystallization. They are also much more durable than the ordinary zines and give better results.

It the blanks are sufiiciently hot when taken from the molds, they may be immersed in the bath at once without reheating.

I do not confine myself to using a sulphuricacid bath, as any acidulated solution will effeetthe result.

Having thus explained my invention what I claim is That improvement in the art of constructing battery-Zines which consists in melting zinc, adding tin and mercury to the molten mass, casting or shaping the same in molds, submittin g the blanks thus cast or formed to heat until a portion of the mercury exudes or appears on the surface, and then submitting said blanks while hot to the action of a weak acid solution, substantially as described.

HIRAM G. FARR.

Witnesses:

E. M. SPINNEY, O. M. SHAW. 

